SILK GROWER'S MANUAL. 187 



know now, that the mulberry tree is a long-lived tree, 

 often continuing healthy several hundred years. 



But it is very easy to avoid injuring the trees, in 

 gathering the branches, by proceeding thus : the first 

 time, with your pruning shears, you cut only about one- 

 third of the branches of your trees, removing always the 

 largest branches, and cutting each time only what you 

 need for your worms and no more, as they should have 

 fresh food every time. 



You proceed in that manner every day, in cutting 

 only about one-third ; and when you have been through 

 all your trees, you come back and begin again where 

 you first began, and cut again another third in the same 

 manner ; and doing so, by the number of young branches 

 left on your trees, the sap continues to run up, and your 

 trees do not suffer from the gathering of some of their 

 branches. 



Low Mulberry Tree Plantations, therefore, in their 

 formation, is the mode which I shall recommend for 

 general adoption in California, for the following reasons : 

 First, it is necessary for our mode of feeding in Cali- 

 fornia, as it renders easy the gathering of the branches. 

 Second, they arrive to a state of productiveness with 

 comparatively little. expense of time and tillage. Third, 

 sufficient sun and air are admitted to the tree to render 

 the leaves of the first quality, and to enable them to put 

 forth early. Fourth, the ground is more suddenly and 

 completely filled and occupied than by planting stand- 

 ards. Fifth, they are easier to be managed and con- 

 trolled. Sixth, the produce of leaves, on the same 



